History

Small World was founded in 1968. It was the inspiration of a small group of forward thinking women. All of the women had lived abroad while on sabbatical leave with their spouses. They knew how it felt to live in another country and not speak the language. They understood the need for companionship. Together the women worked to form a much-needed organization to serve international women in our community to foster friendship and understanding.

At first, Small World was a social program where women and their young children gathered twice a week. Later, when space was available the program expanded to include individual activities: such as cooking, sewing, knitting, quilting, crocheting and craft classes. Basic English classes were also taught. The children were divided by age into three separate classrooms. Children under 24 months were in the Nursery, children 2-3 years in the Toddler room and children 4-5 years in the Preschool class.

Although the First Presbyterian Church has graciously hosted
our program since 1968; Small World is a private program for women. We are not affiliated with First
Presbyterian Church (FPC) or any other church.

Over the years, Small World has made changes to accommodate the needs of our students. After twenty years, our students indicated that they were less interested in the domestic activities that Small World offered. They preferred a more academically focused program. Therefore in 1990 Small World restructured our program from a social organization to an academic program. The new emphasis was on English. To reflect the change, instead of paying dues, students paid tuition.

The new academic program proved to be the right path for Small World to pursue. In later years, Small World expanded our English classes to six levels. The number of classrooms that are available for us to use limits the number of students that are accepted. When a class is full, incoming students are placed on a “waiting list” until there is a vacancy.

For many years Small World offered children's classes and nursery care for the children of women enrolled in our English classes. This service was made possible because the FPC church where Small World meets,
allowed the use of their children’s classrooms.

The First Presbyterian Church (FPC) has hosted the Small World program since 1968. In early 2015 the FPC made the decision to expand their FPC preschool. Therefore Small World was no longer able to use the FPC preschool classrooms for our children's program. Effective fall 2015, Small World discontinued our children's program.